


Proof of Concept

by XionKuriyama



Category: Celeste (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Novelization, One Shot, Oneshot, Short One Shot, maybe a twoshot if i can make it work, takes place at the end of the prolouge, this was a test of my celeste writing skills really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21680239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XionKuriyama/pseuds/XionKuriyama
Summary: Madeline must learn a new concept from a semi-helpful bird. And she better learn it fast.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 58





	Proof of Concept

**Author's Note:**

> Other people have done this idea and probably did it better. Please read "I Got The Wings Of Heaven On My Shoes" if you haven't already. But dammit, Celeste needs more fics and I need to write more in general. Thank you Celeste for inspiring me to finally write again after months of writer's block. Thank you for reading, be sure to kudo and comment, enjoy.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Celeste belongs to Matt Makes Games. I do not stand to profit from this work in any way.

About three seconds ago, Madeline had thought that the mean old woman laughing at her after she was _nearly crushed by a giant block of ice_ was just some sociopath who didn’t know anything. Boomers, right? “Things you ain’t ready to see”, come on.

Now that the bridge was collapsing behind her as she was running across, she wasn’t quite so sure.

It had only been a few moments, but already, it felt like she had been running for her life forever. Her legs hurt, her face stung with the cold. She felt like she was going to collapse at any moment, and the bridge was _still falling._

A bit ahead of her fell. She barely managed to jump over it. She managed to get up and keep running just before the bricks behind her plummeted down to the void below.

_And it was still falling._

She felt like her legs were going to disintegrate at this point. But if she stopped here, she would die.

If she died here, she would _fail._

Failure did not lead to death. Failure _was_ death.

The bridge was falling ahead of her again. She jumped.

Her landing fell faster than her.

…

…

…

**Just breathe.**

Time slowed to a crawl, and then to a halt. Her thoughts came with it. It was a familiar feeling… almost. It kind of felt like dissociation. Except… different. Instead of a distant feeling, time seemed to slow to allow her to focus.

A small raven flew down, looking almost confident, as if the unstoppable flow of time and entropy had paused itself just for it. It pecked the ground for a moment, perhaps for food. Then it seemed to realize that the time flow stopping meant it could not pull its food from the ground, causing it to look up at Madeline, the only apparent cause of this state of affairs.

Just her luck that her imminent death would inconvenience this poor bird trapped in a timeless limbo forever, she supposed.

But then it cawed. On the one hand, the cry from its beak sounded almost annoyed— _get on with it!_ But on the other, it sounded confident— _you can do it!_

Either way, for some reason, a sole command rang through her mind upon the call.

**_DASH._ **

Something clicked. She couldn’t quite describe what, but whatever it was, she did it.

All at once, a surge of energy rushed through her. In a split second, even as time was already starting to catch up to her, she curled herself into a tight ball and then launched herself, like a pinball off a bumper. She flew up in the air at a blazing speed, glowing blue like a bolt of lightning, afterimages trailing behind her.

As she landed, her hair remained glowing white hot for a second, then the energy left her. The raven had flown away in a panic, likely realizing that remaining in the girl’s path would end poorly for it. Madeline fell to her knees, panting and gasping for air.

It took a few seconds for it to dawn on her that she had lived.

**You can do this.**


End file.
